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Ho Chi Minh declares Vientnamees Independance
On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe #1 Billboard September 2, 1945 Japan surrenders to end World War II and Ho Chi Minh declares Vietnam independant from France. The United States initially supports Vietnam in this declaration. However needing France's help with the growing Cold War in Europe They back France in the 1st Indochina war and bankrolled much of the war effort. -
Period: to
Vietnam beginning to end
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A divided State
Little Things Mean A Lot #1 Billboard July 1954
The country was divided into North and South Vietnam by the French government and the Viet Minh. North Vietnam went to Ho Chi Minh and the South went the Emperor Bao Dai. -
"December 1961 White Paper"
Big Bad John #1 on billboard charts Presidnet John F Kennedy sent a team into Vietnam to assess what conditions were like and what future American aid would be needed. -
ARVN coup
Sugar Shack #1 Billboard Nov. 1, 1963 The Army of the Republic of Vietnan approaches the Americans with a military coup. Kennedy supports this action and on Nov. 1, 1963 both Ngo Dinh Diem and his brother are captured and later killed. -
Assassination of an American President
Deep Purple #1 Billboard Nov. 22, 1963 President John F Kennedy is assassinated while driving through Dallas. There is still some debate as to what Kennedy would have done in Vietnam yet up to this point there were only 16,000 military advisors in Vietnam and had so far managed to run things without an intoduction of major U.S. troops. -
Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
A Hard Day's Night #1 Aug. 2,1964 After the August 2, 1964 attack on U.S. Naval vessals the U.S. government used a second reported attack which is later discovered happened as the reason for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. The American people back it. -
Air War
Leader of the Pack #1 Nov. 28, 1964 In the fall and winter of '64 the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to step up the air war over nothern Vietnam but it isn't until an attack by the National Liberation Front on 2 U.S. army installations in early 1965 that Johnson agrees to the sustained bombing of North Vietnam -
Operation Rolling Thunder
Eight Days A Week #1 Billboard March 13, 1965 In March of 1965 Johnson sends in the first American troops. It causes the communist party to rethink their war strategy. The set out to bog down the "Americans in a war it could not win." And hoped to creat unfavorable politcal condition. -
Anti-War Protests
Dodging the draft video After the bombing of North Vietnam anti-war protests began. They were small at first in college campuses however they grew over the next 3 years and peaked in 1968 -
Fueling the Anti-War Fire
Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is A Season) By November 1967 the United States had more than 500,000 troops in Vietnam and 40,000 men were being drafted and sent to Vietnam each month. Casualties were mounting and the War was costing the United States an estimated $25 billion dollars a year. -
The Tet Offensive
(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay The Tet Offensive helped to stir the anti-war sentiment to a peak frenzy. Johnson decides to withdraw from the presidential election and indicated he would begin bargining with the communist party. -
Nixon beats Humphries
Hey Jude After the death of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr the country is in shock and this left an opening for Richard Nixon winning the election for presidnet. The democratic party was visably divided and the republican party wins out. -
You've been drafted
Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye The first draft lottery is enacted since World War II causing many men to flee to Canada in an effort to avoid conscription. Demonstrations escalated and violence ensued such as Kent State where 4 students were killed by the National Guard troops. -
The Pentagon Papers
Me And Bobby McGee Daniel Ellsberg who worked on a secret Department of Defense investigation on the Vietnam war and how it was handled 1945-1967 became disillusioned with the war and released photocopies of the investigation to the New York Times. The times inturn published several articles related to this material and the insuing anti-war mandate leads to Nixon announcing the end to the conflict -
The End
Nixon announces the end of the conflict in Vietnam -
The Last combat troops Leave Vietnam
Killing Me Softly With His Song<ahref='http://www.pbs.org/battlefieldvietnam/timeline/index4.html' >Battlefield Vietnam PBS</a> The last combat troops leave Vietnam. The casualties numbers are high 58,000 are dead, there are 1,000 MIA and more than 150,000 have been injured. There are still U.S. military in Vietnam protecting United States instillations but officially the war is over. -
4:03 am
(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song" At 4:03 am on April 30, 1975 the last 2 casualties of the vietnam war were killed with rocket attack on Saigon's Tan Son Nhut airport. Soon after the Marines lifted off looters ransack the U.S. Embassy and the North Vietnamese tanks rolled into Saigon."
